Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-20
: Burglars cordially welcomed at all hours
: w. II. McDOUGALL.
IN. Y. World.
FRENCH IRONCLADS.
Their Model. Armament and
Speed.

The course taken by the French de-.
signers, when the increased thickness of
armor made it impossible to repeat the
complete protection adopted in La Gloire
and her compeers, was In some few cases
that of betting the ship with arnor, and
giving great tumble home" to the sides
above water, excepting IN the central
armored battery, thus allowing the bat
terry to project, and its guns to fire
directly ahead and astern, past the
inwardly inclined sides. This system
has been strikingly carried out in the
two sister ships Foudroyant and De-
vastation. But generally in the French
navy, and in nearly all but its earliest
ships, direct head and sterr fire has been
obtained by means of elevated and pro-
jecting towers, armor plated to a sutfi.
cient height to protect the gun ma.
chinery, but with the guns themselves
unprotected, and firing en- barbette. In
the case of the two ships, Devastation
and Foudroyant, the main deck project
ing battery carries four guns, each com.
manding full quadrant of circle.
| The barbette batteries, standing up
above the upper deck. carry powerful
gun on each side of the ship, with great
range of fire.
Having given these general indications
of the system of attack and defence
adopted IN the French navy--by far the
most important of all the continental
navies-it now besomes desirable TO go
more into particulars. 1t is not neces-
sary to dwell upon the early ironclads of
France. The La Gloire and a dozen
others of like character were all built of
wood, without water tight bulkheads,
without arms or spurs, with armor
plates from four to six inches thick only,
and with guns of small calibre and pow
er. They may be left out of considera.
ton in dealing with the present French
navy. They were followed by fourteen
other vessels, also built of wood, but
with upper works of iron, viz: the
Ocean, Marepgo, Sufferer, Richelieu,
| Colbert, Trident. They were armored
with plates of maximum thickness of
| 81 inches, and carried four guns of l0a
inches calibre, weighing twenty-three
tons each, with four l6 ton guns and
half dozen light ones. They varied in
particulars, ranging in tonnage from 1000
to 5000 tons, in horsepower from 5000
to 1900, and in speed from l3 to l4a
knots. The Fiedland is another vessel
which is frequently classed with the
previous six ships, the largest of which
she generally resembles, but she is built
of iron, and carries eight 23.ton guns,
and none of l6.ton. A committee which
sat in 1879, and which had for its Presi.
dent and Vice. Presidents men no less
eminent than the late M. Gambetta and
NM. Albert Grevy and Jules Ferry,
pronounced these seven ships to be the
strongest armored ships Of the French
Navy then in service. Such great ad.
vances have since been made, however,
that it is only necessary to add respect
ing these vessels that they were nearly
all single screw ships, and that they
carried their principal araments at
broadside ports on the main.deck, and
il raised barbette towers placed at the
tour corners of the central battery.
The Richelieu was the largest of these
vessels. Not one of the foregoing French
ships of the early period conformed 10
conditions which were laii down off
cially in 1872 as those required for first
class French ironclads, VIZ, that they
should be constructed of iron Tor steel),
with water.tight compartments, be
armored with plates IL inches thick,
with decks 2 to 2I inches thick, and
armored with guns of "a eentimetres
calibre, commanding certain prescribed
ranges of fire, and furnished with spurs
or ram stems. There were, however,
four ships then under construction or
trial which did not conform to the pre-
scribed conditions. namely. the two
already spoken of, the Foudroyant and
Devastation, add two others named the
Reboutable and the ADMIRAL -Dnperre.
With these powerful ships may be said
to have commenced the era of iron and
steel ine-of-battle ships in France. The